It's a crime

[Dave Mellor NJ]

To think this was a routine occurence back in the old days

 

[Synchro909]

All of our collector cars are just the ones that survived the stage in a car's life when they were worth nothing but scrap value but I can't see how today's car will ever be restored as our have been.

 

[nkaminar]

When I sold my place in California I cut up several cars with a Sawsall and stuffed them in a dumpster to be hauled away to be recycled. They were just old cars from the 1950's. Worthless at the time.

 

[Chuck Dempsey]

Burning the upholstery out, to leave just steel?

 

[larry harding]

i'm into hit and miss engines as well as cars. i am amazed how many survived ww11..

 

[Marshall V. Daut]

To think this was a routine occurence back in the old days

This kind of senseless destruction is still going on today. It's called "hot rodding".
Marshall

 

[nkaminar]

I am OK with hotrodding as long as no old parts are used. One can buy a new frame and a fiberglass body. In fact, one can buy a complete kit that can be put together in about a year of concentrated effort. The cars built with no old parts are actually the better quality with modern suspension systems, engines, drive trains, and brakes.

 

[Joe K]

i'm into hit and miss engines as well as cars. i am amazed how many survived ww11..

A Manchester NH friend is now 80 years old and starting to "dissolve" his collection.

The "name brand" engines particularly those of New England manufacture go for seriously big bucks. Completeness is paramount, but its surprising how much can be gone and still retain a "market value."

Other more common engines if operable are worth considerably less. Think "inflation adjusted original cost." A Kenwood (Sears Roebuck brand) engine originally sold for about $24 in a 1920s era catalog. Google query $24 in 1924 = $411.74 in 2023.

And my friend just cleaned out an entire bay to an antique purveyor - like 15 unrestored and even questionable completeness engines for about $2800.

The problem is those who "grew up" using and knowing these engines are passing - their attention is "waning" - and the new generation doesn't have the connection.

The Model A may be unique since in the pre-war years it occupied the position of "car available." The improvements in "modern" cars quickly obsoleted earlier less "functional" cars. Think today about a screw-in fluorescent bulb - worth more as pulverized dust than as a light source.

Dad on the eve of WWII bought a 1929 Model A RPU from the junkman for $15. Drove it while at home from college for three years. Sold it back to the junkman in 1943 for $15.

"Best deal on a car I ever got" he said.

$15 in 1943 = $263.42 in 2023.

I.e. about 1cents a pound then and today. Scrap value.

One imagines with wartime steel production being what it was, that car didn't last long as a car.

Joe K

 

[Synchro909]

One imagines with wartime steel production being what it was, that car didn't last long as a car.

Joe K

Many are the expensive European cars that are finding their way to Europe after being bought by wealthy guys over their. It has been happening for years. They say they are "bringing the car home" but it spent its entire life here and is in fact, an Australian car. It's just that we weren't stupid enough to melt them all down to shoot at each other. Now, they seem to think they have a right to them.

 

[Brad in Germany]

Unfortunately, a lot of old cars also got junked because they were considered dangerous:

Brad in Maryland




.

 

[Pete]

It is amazing there are any old racers still alive after all of the junk yard parts we used on race cars without magnaflux or x-ray inspection.

 

[Synchro909]

It is amazing there are any old racers still alive after all of the junk yard parts we used on race cars without magnaflux or x-ray inspection.

I sometimes think we soooo overdo things these days just because we can and we have the spare money to do it.

 

[Pete]

I sometimes think we soooo overdo things these days just because we can and we have the spare money to do it.

1000 hp out of a flathead doesn't seem excessive to me...LOL

 

[lrf]

Scrapping old cars helped win WWII. Seeing these photos makes me even more happy that I've saved 3 Model A's in my driveway. LRF

 

[Joe K]

Scrapping old cars helped win WWII. Seeing these photos makes me even more happy that I've saved 3 Model A's in my driveway. LRF

Dad's comment on the "rush" of Japanese produced sheet metal toys in the late 1950s.

"Made from Amelican beer can."

One of these was cut open revealing "Miller" on the inside label IIRC.

Dad never got over WWII. Not a direct participant he was involved in the "withdrawal" after dropping the bomb.

"It staggered the imagination the amount of "war material" I ferried out to be used as target practice (to use up ammunition stocks.)"

When I announced I was going to buy a Honda Civic in the 1980s...

His reply: sssssss...

Dad even knew the story of W. Edwards Deming (Father of Quality Control.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Edwards_Deming

He is also known as the father of the quality movement and was hugely influential in post-WWII Japan, credited with revolutionizing Japan's industry and making it one of the most dominant economies in the world.[1][2] He is best known for his theories of management.[

Joe K

 

[gdmn852]

Hello, many of the people when I first got into antique cars in late 1960,s were WW2 vets , and understandably had some misgivings about German and Japan cars. One tool shop I worked didn’t allow foreign cars in parking lot!Many cars helped the war effort in scrap drive efforts, the home front also suffered with rationing and the occasional telegram from the war department, that started with, We regret to inform you….You have to view past events at the time they were happening.

 

[ModelA29]

Henry did his own fair share of scrapping cars - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNRt2JLcw9Y

i'm into hit and miss engines as well as cars. i am amazed how many survived ww11..

I think WWII saved the A. By the early 40s people had moved on to "modern" cars. Their Model A wasn't worth much for a trade in so many kept them as a second car for the wife or their kids.

When the war hit having a second car meant when the tires went out on one you still had something to drive. At the end of the war those As brought good money from returning servicemen desperate to get something to drive. For many it was their first car and they kept and restored/hot rodded them since they weren't worth much when new car production caught up.

 

[Joe K]

John Hawks discusses the probably apocryphal story of Henry Ford "surveying" Model T junkyards wanting to learn ways to make subsequent production "cheaper."

https://johnhawks.net/weblog/the-legend-of-henry-fords-kingpins-in-evolutionary-biology/

John dismisses the claim.

I have heard similar in a later 1930s version that an elderly Henry Ford surveyed the junkyards and "took much comfort that competing vehicles seemed much more numerous."

This version seems much more plausible as I don't remember any outcome from this other than "an older man took satisfaction with his life's work." And it more likely fits the character - and the timing.

Joe K

 

[Dave Mellor NJ]

My union hall still has a sign"No foreign cars permitted" although it is widely ignored. I for one will never have a foreign car. Now you have Chineses and Vietnamese cars, UGH

 

[Synchro909]

My union hall still has a sign"No foreign cars permitted" although it is widely ignored. I for one will never have a foreign car. Now you have Chineses and Vietnamese cars, UGH

IMO, just because a car is made somewhere other than the US does not mean it is no good. You'd be surprised if you knew how much of your "American" car is made in China these days.
The US has about 5% of the world's population. That means anything US made is foreign made to 95% of people, many of whom consider US made the same way you say you consider all non US made.
No one has a patent on quality.